On May 25-26, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) held a meeting at the Pracheen Shri Ram Mandir in Haridwar. Over the course of the two days, VHP members and the sundry saints gathered pontificated over two main issues: one, maintaining the purity of Ganga; and, two, the protection of cows to sustain the white revolution and the poor.

One of the swamis present lamented how there’s no pure “Ganga jal” available even at Haridwar today. On May 27, newspapers reported that the VHP had called for a complete ban on whitewater rafting in Ganga because it leads to “objectionable activities” on the riverbank — a place where saints meditate. Media reports stressed on “drinking” and “mingling” between the opposite sexes as VHP leaders’ prime concern and gave the sense that the organisation had found yet another cause to further its cultural agenda.

However, a look at the organisation’s webpage shows that saving the Ganga has been on its agenda for some time now. One of its “movements” christened Ganga Raksha Andolan lists in detail the organisation’s plan of action to keep “Shri. Ganga intact and totally free from pollution right from her source till she merges in the ocean”.

It includes opposing construction of “any type of dam”, preventing waste materials and dirty sewage water from being led into the Ganga, making leaving of dead bodies, waste materials and sewage waters into the water a cognizable offence, conducting scientific research and so on. However, it makes no mention of rafting or its “polluting” effects. If it wasn’t on the VHP’s website and the stress on the river’s “holy” qualities, it could very well be the mission statement of an environment organisation.

But then reports coming out on VHP being up in arms against moral deprivation are so much more fun than the organisation making a coherent case against environmental degradation. And, indeed, it goes with the VHP’s image as the protector of “Hindu dharma”.

***************

A Delhi-based non-government organisation, Social Action For Forest And Environment (SAFE), filed an application before the National Green Tribunal on March 26, 2015 for a stay on current operations of all rafting camps and granting fresh licences. This made little news.

The advocate representing the organisation, Rahul Choudhary, informs us that it has nothing to do with the VHP.

The application highlights the fact that most of the camping sites operating from Shivpuri to Rishikesh, flout environmental norms and are not monitored properly. Waste disposal is one of the key issues that it lists, while mentioning that several camp owners permit the consumption of food and alcohol – “They leave empty bottles, cans of unconsumed food and waste including bones and filth in and around the campsite.”

The tribunal is set to hear the case on July 1. It had earlier rejected an application by another NGO called Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action that stressed on the “desecration” of the holy river: “Tourists are spotted consuming alcoholic beverages and non-vegetarian food, the leftover of which are found either on the sides of the river, or thrown in the river that flows through the sacred place of pilgrimage centers.” 

Sources unwilling to be named allege these NGOs are a front for organisations like the VHP. While others are of the opinion that there are serious concerns about the way in which the rafting industry has come up around Rishikesh and that both the “sadhu” community and locals have reasons to be miffed.

Whitewater rafting as an adventure sport came up near Rishikesh around the late 80s with mostly Delhi-based operators leading the way. The industry witnessed a boom towards the 2000s and currently there are about 35 beach camp sites on forest land, 20 on revenue land and 20 on privately-owned land in Uttarakhand. Licences for rafting are issued by the Ministry of Tourism and permissions for setting of a beach camp are given either by the forest department or revenue land department. Fresh licences for the camp site are issued every year, however, there is no real policy on ground to regulate the licensing.

Anand Sankar, a journalist who’d travelled extensively in the area and interacted with all stakeholders in the rafting industry, says a fundamental lack of policy, regulation and enforcement come together to make the mess that the rafting industry is in today. “Everything in India that needs to be corrected starts with a ban. First, camp sites need to be auctioned in a proper manner – there must be a clear policy on who gets these and companies should bid for a camp and pay a premium on the type of land they get. Merely queuing up in government offices to obtain permissions is not policy.”

Anand agrees that most of the camps operating flout environmental laws. “The industry has failed to regulate itself. At least 95 per cent of the camps are just garbage dumps. They don’t have dry toilets and flush waste into the river, you can see mountains of beer bottles and food waste on camp sites,” he says, adding that a two-year hiatus on camping along the Ganga may not be such a bad idea. “The river needs to heal itself. But a ban on rafting itself is plain foolish, it can cause no pollution to the river, the problem are the unregulated camp sites.”

Akshay Kumar, president of the Adventure Tour Operator Association of India, says when rafting first started back in 84, it was the industry that laid down the rules for camping. “We made it a point to not use flush toilets, electricity or generators. Neither music nor big parties were allowed. But over the years, these rules were diluted as indiscriminate number of camp sites came about.” He says that he doesn’t care much about what the VHP says but agrees that things have gone a little out of control. “We have repeatedly asked the government of Uttarakhand to draft a policy on rafting. The right way to go about solving the problem is regulating the activity – which by itself is one of the cleanest – than calling for a ban.” On the question of upsetting local sensitivities by consumption of alcohol and meat, he says, “Most of the camp-site operators are locals, and many do flout environmental laws. So who’s upsetting the local sentiments?”

The application on behalf of the Indian Association of Professional Rafting Outfitters in response to the call on a ban by SAFE states that the rafting industry has promoted and adopted eco-friendly best practices and tirelessly worked towards the conservation of the Ganga.

***********

As for VHP and its new-found zeal to ban rafting, the Central Pollution Control Board’s monitoring data suggests that biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels are high downstream of Haridwar, Kannauj and Kanpur and peak at Varanasi – where the Ganga becomes solely a spot of religious tourism. A study by the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention states that the amount of sewage disposed into the river increases during the Char Dham Yatra season when nearly 15 lakh pilgrims visit the state within May and October each year. You won’t hear them calling for a regulation of, leave alone a ban on, religious tourism any time soon.